Balance
by TriwizardChampion97
Summary: Victoria Snape is just as excited to go back to Hogwarts for her 6th year as any child would be on Christmas morning. She enters back into the world of magic, mischief, and the occasional detention, without a care in the world. However, she soon finds herself juggling her family and her friends, and quickly starts wondering exactly what, or whom, she had been missing the most.
1. Chapter 1

**Thank you for taking the time to read my newest story - I know I'm a pain for starting new stories and never updating, but I promise, I already have a sequel mapped out, so this should get completed at some point!**

**This is the first harry Potter story I have published, though I have many written, and therefore I'm hoping that everything makes sense.**

**A few points have to be made with my story. Though Severus' family (himself and his parents) are poor, Victoria is given money by her parents, and this helps a little towards her welfare, but is only enough for the essentials. So whilst Severus had a poor up-bringing, Vic has the remains of what she had from her parents.**

**Also, both her father and Severus' father are brothers, and this is why she is also a Snape.**

**I am a perfectionist, and therefore for my own piece of mind, had to write this down.**

I stood, staring at my trunk, willing it to shut. My clothes were neatly folded, and my ingredients and books neatly packed beside them, and yet I could not manage to close those damn latches. The lid popped open with a click, and I groaned in frustration.

For hours I had scoured the house, gathering up the essentials for another year at Hogwarts, and had even deprived myself of my collection of perfumes to ensure that it all fitted. It didn't, and I was beginning to feel the need to pick it up and throw it out of the window. I wouldn't, and couldn't however; too many precious things were contained inside that trunk, and my skinny, girly arms were not entirely suitable for heavy lifting.

* * *

My 6th year of Hogwarts was always going to be one of the best. My summer had slithered by, as my excitement for school over took my every waking moment. Not helped of course, by the ever present force that was my cousin, who never knew when to stop talking about the one thing that I was looking forward to.

He snuck around the house like a ghost; he only appeared fully for meal times, purely to annoy me, and spent most of his time seeking the privacy of his room and the friendship that his books gave him. I had always seen him as strange, but he had always been my friend. I had made a note to be kind, and in time, our relationship had blossomed. Unlike the one I held between myself and my parents.

Severus found it hilarious that I was kicked out by my parents at the age of 15, but I insisted that it was not my fault. I hadn't meant to blow up my bedroom, and incidentally, the injury my father sustained from running into the flames was not my... well, I was not to be blamed.

They'd accepted my apology, but they were never going to let me through the front door again, which even i thought was wise. So I began my life with my uncle, aunt and Severus.

* * *

"Vic, get down here! We've got an hour, and knowing you, you will have forgotten something!"

I sighed at the harried tones of my uncle Tobias. He never calmed down; maybe that was why Sev never strayed from his room. It made sense.

"Coming!" I called, and jumped on my trunk for the 50th time, hoping it would miraculously shut. Unsurprisingly, the click never came, and I found myself dragging one heavy box with a flailing lid down a very rickety set of stairs. Tobias was not amused.

"Is it to much to ask to get you to close your bloody trunk?" He muttered.

"I couldn't...!" I protested, as he gave the lid a whack. I watched my trunk squeeze shut, and I sighed with exasperation. I quickly walked away as he lifted it into the boot of his car, fearing that I would get asked to help.

Severus was sat in the back of the car, nose in a book. He hadn't noticed the issue with the trunk, and was busy scribbling down notes on a scrap piece of parchment. I smirked, and flopped down next to him, slid the book from his grasp, and flicked through the pages. He hardly protested, but watched me with a raised eyebrow.

I settled on a safe conversation starter. "This one's good."

Severus nodded. His black, straggly hair flicked across his face, and I made a mental note to try and attack him with scissors.

"Yes. Very interesting; you see, I always knew that brewing Amortentia was never that simple..."

I cut him off, a smirk sneaking across my face. Sev realised his mistake, and looked away as I leant forward. "Why are you looking to brew Amortentia?"

For a moment, he spluttered at the implication, and then sat back in silent protest. I shook my head as the car pulled away, and handed him back his book. He scrambled for a moment, seeking the required page, and settled back on the page of the most powerful love potion in the world.


	2. Chapter 2

**Thank you for popping over to take a looksie at my second chapter! I love this story, and am so excited to get more feedback on it (hint, hint).**

**Thank you to ReadsFanfic for your neat little review - I really appreciated it!**

Finding a seat on the Hogwarts Express was always a challenge. In my past years, I could remember many terrifying crowds as students piled into the carriages of the train. Severus would always go off and find his comrades, and so I would be left alone to fight my way through the sea of kids, on a hunt to find my fellow Gryffindors, and my long missed, best friends.

From the word go, I had always known that I would not be a Slytherin, and it had not come as a surprise when Severus became one. We were sorted one after another, him first. It had made for an interesting event for the teachers. The surprise on Severus' face, when I became a lion, was one I would never forget.

Absorbed in my thought, I subconsciously elbowed another 6th year out of the way, and walked straight into the back of a Lily Evans. She spun round with her wand clutched in her hand, but dropped it quickly. With a squeal, she pulled me into a tight hug.

"Aaaaaaah! Vic! I've missed you so much!"

I detached myself from her tight grasp, and grinned at her. "Me too! Severus wasn't very good company."

A shadow crossed Lily's face at the mention of my cousin. I'd forgotten about their prior friendship, and the break down of it.

"Of course he wasn't." She frowned briefly, and I saw her new found hatred for Severus. Panicking, and trying to avoid an awkward silence, I quickly changed the subject.

"Have you seen the others?" I asked hopefully, wishing nothing more but to see my friends again. Lily shook her head, and dragged me over to the train, up the steps, and into a compartment she had snagged a few moments before. Deciding to simply wait for the rest of the group, I threw my trunk onto the luggage rack and plonked down onto a seat.

"So. You were gone for so long!" Lily settled down on a set in the corner. "The entire 5th year! Was it really that bad? You had to go to St Mungos didn't you?"

I grimaced, beginning to process her onslaught of questions. "It was horrible. For nearly three months I couldn't speak, and with the broken bones, I wasn't exactly going to be an asset to Hogwarts. Severus kept calling it a muggle illness. So annoying!"

* * *

I hadn't been at school for the previous year. After the fiery explosion I had caused, I had suffered severe inhalation of smoke. But not normal smoke, no, stupid magical smoke that surrounds your insides and renders you useless. This was what destroyed my speech, and, to add to my 'smoking', I had fallen through the burning floor of my bedroom and broken both my legs and 4 ribs. Smart Victoria.

Even St Mungos couldn't find a cure for the damage the smoke had done, and so I had stayed at my parent's house until reasonably active. Once my voice had begun to recover, I had then been sent to live where I do now, where I could do the school work I had been sent without 'endangering' my parents' lives.

* * *

Lily shook her head and sighed. "You Ok now though? Promise?"

I smiled at my best friend, and pulled her into another hug. She was a true worrier, and I adored her for it.

"Of course I'm alright now." I wiggled my arms and legs, just to prove a point.

Whilst I was doing my jellyfish impression, the compartment door slid open, and two boys walked in. Sirius Black and James Potter had arrived.

"Victoria, are you sure you're not mentally deranged?" Sirius chuckled, and grabbed me by the wrist, dragging me upright and saving me from further embarrassment. James shook his head with a murmur, and pulled me into my third hug of the day, quickly followed by my own, special, slap on the back by Sirius.

"We thought we'd never see you again!" James said sincerely, tossing his trunk to the side as he flopped down against Lily. She quickly pushed him away with a giggle.

I shrugged at James' comment. "I thought I'd never be back. Home was boring"

Everyone shuffled around, pushing trunks to the side and making room for each other. Once settled, Sirius wrinkled his nose at me. "Well, we're glad to have you back Snapey" he said, ruffling my hair.

I rolled my eyes, and looked at my watch. "Where's Moony? And Wormtail?"

"We just saw them on the platform." James said, motioning to himself and Sirius. "Moony said they'd be along in a minute."

I nodded, and sank back against the cushioned bench we were all perched on. The others began a conversation, and I happily listened to their upbeat chatter, waiting.


End file.
